This Day In Music History: Paul Anka and Diana

For years I had heard that Paul Anka wrote this song about his love for his babysitter. That is incorrect. He wrote it about the crush he had on his little brother and sister's babysitter. She was 3 years older then him and turned him down. He poured his feelings out in a poem and then set it to music.
This however was not the Canadian natives first song. In school he read a book called Prestor John by John Buchan. In the book was a town named Blau Wildebeeste Fontaine. He wrote a song about the town and named the song after it. Paul was a fan of the group the Cadets and noticed that their label was in nearby Culver City. He took his song to them and played it for them. They liked it and signed Paul to a record it and release it with the Cadets singing in the background. At the age of 14 Paul Anka released his first song. The song didn't sell well and he returned home to Ottawa.
The next summer he entered and won a contest sponsored by Campbell's Soup. The contest required you to send in the soup wrappers from their cans. Paul scoured every garbage can he found for soup wrappers. He even took a job at a supermarket to be close to soup cans that were thrown away. The prize that he won was a train trip to Manhattan.
WIth $100 from his Father Paul went to Manhattan. The first person he went to see was Don Costa at ABC-Paramount Records. He showed Mr. Costa his songs. He was so impressed with the song Diana that he told Paul to have his parents come to New York to sign contracts.
ABC-Paramount released the song and on this day in music history, September 9th 1957, Diana was #1 on the Billboard charts for 1 week. England liked the song even more then America. In England the song was #1 for 9 weeks in a row.
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